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Ahead of his summit with President Xi Jinping in South Korea, President Donald Trump announced that he has directed the Department of Defense to restart nuclear weapons testing immediately, on an equal footing with other nuclear powers. Trump stated on Truth Social that, due to other nations’ testing activities, the U.S. will now conduct its tests to maintain strategic parity, with the process beginning right away. He mentioned that Russia ranks second in nuclear capability, with China a distant third, but expects China to reach parity within five years.
On Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the successful testing of a Poseidon nuclear-powered super torpedo, which experts believe could cause catastrophic radioactive sea waves capable of devastating coastal regions. As Trump has adopted a more aggressive stance toward Russia, Putin has demonstrated his own nuclear prowess by testing a Burevestnik cruise missile on October 21 and conducting nuclear launch drills on October 22.
The last nuclear test conducted by the United States occurred in 1992. Testing serves to verify the performance and reliability of nuclear arsenals, both new and old. These tests also act as a strategic signal to other nations, especially Russia and China, emphasizing U.S. nuclear strength.
The U.S. pioneered the nuclear age in July 1945 with a 20-kiloton atomic bomb test in New Mexico, followed by the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August of the same year, which played a pivotal role in ending World War II.
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